MORE THAN AN HOUR OF TV A DAY 'TURNS TEENS TO VIOLENCE'
By Roger Highfield - Science Editor

Teenagers who watch more than an hour of television each day are more likely to become violent adults, a study has found. Adolescents, particularly boys, are more likely to turn to violence in their early twenties if they watch more than an hour of television a day.

However, by the time they become young adults, women who watch two or more hours of television a day are more prone to aggression.

The survey, the first into the long-term effects of television on violence, is published today in the journal 'Science' by Prof Jeffrey Johnson, of Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and co-authors.

The team tracked more than 700 children and took into account the 'chicken and egg' question: Does watching television cause aggression or do people prone to aggression watch more television?

Prof Johnson concludes that, during early adolescence, responsible parents should not let their children watch more than one hour of television a day.

"That's where the vast majority of the increase in risk occurs," he said. "Even youths with no history of such aggressive behaviours were much more likely to commit aggressive acts over the eight-year follow-up period if they watched one or more hours of television per day at mean age 14, compared with those who watched less than one hour per day."

The unexpected difference between young men and women emerged as the study progressed.

The link between aggression and television is strongest for men during adolescence and for women during early adulthood. The difference might be because adolescent girls watch less violent television programmes, catching up with men by the age of 22.

However, Prof Johnson warns that this theory needs further study because television programming has changed significantly since viewing by the adolescent girls was last assessed in 1983.

While the most common acts of violence for boys were assault and fighting, violent behaviour by young women also included robbery and threats to injure. "It's quite surprising," he said. "We certainly wouldn't have predicted what we found."

The link between watching television and behaving violently remained intact after the researchers had accounted for other factors, such as childhood neglect, low family income or psychiatric disorder during adolescence.

The youths in the study and their mothers were interviewed four times over the course of 18 years and assigned to three categories: those who watched less than one hour of television per day, between one and three hours per day, and more than three hours per day.

Three to five violent acts occur in an average hour of prime-time television, while 20 to 25 violent acts occur in an average hour of children's television, according to Prof Johnson.

Information on aggressive acts committed by the study subjects came from interviews, as well as state and federal records of arrests and charges for adult criminal behaviour. The researchers grouped the violent acts according to whether they occurred around age 16, age 22 or age 30.

One aim of the study was to determine how much of the apparent link between television viewing and aggressive behaviour was caused by watching television.

Once other factors were accounted for, 5-7 per cent of the adolescents who watched less than one hour then committed aggressive acts against other people in later years.

In contrast, 22.5 per cent of adolescents who watched between one and three hours a day committed aggressive acts later, as did 28.8 per cent of the adolescents who watched more than three hours a day.

The study was conducted on 707 families with a child, randomly sampled from two counties in northern New York State, over 18 years.

Concerns about the effects of TV violence date back to the 1940s, soon after television began broadcasting.

"Despite the consensus among experts, lay people do not seem to be getting the message from the popular press that media violence contributes to a more violent society," said Dr Craig Anderson and Dr Brad Bushman, of Iowa State University.

"News reports about the effects of media violence have shifted to weaker statements, implying that there is little evidence for such effects. This inaccurate reporting in the popular press may account for continuing controversy long after the debate should have been over."
The Daily Telegraph Friday 29th March 2002

Phillip Day Comment: My forthcoming book 'The Mind Game' investigates in some detail the problems associated with the constant deluge of sex and violence on TV and how this has shaped our children and even adults. 2003 will be the year when CTM begins assisting in the great garbage clean-up of our societies. Who's up for helping us to accomplish that?